"Ireland, as with countries like France and Italy in the past, has enjoyed a consistent and solid expansion of its nonlicenced independent commercial stations, or 'pirates'. Whilst the UK has promised a deregulated system for some years, the Irish Republic has at last passed a Bill for providing for a wide variety of new services, one national TV and radio service, and a number of regional radio stations, with town and community stations to follow. All will be independent of RTE, all commercial, but with a stiff minimurn 20% public service requirement. This is something the stations promised in the UK will not have to provide. Prior to the final application of the new Irish Bill, many of the larger stations like ERI in Cork, Sunshine and Q102 in Dublin made as much headway as possible to establish themselves. I specifically created KISS FM Monaghan to consolidate a sizeable station to make use of this factor. The Bill was originally planned to come into force on 31 December 87, but was passed during the middle of last year. In the meantime Ireland continued to develop its self-regulating, albeit unlicensed, system.

In brief, since 1976 the Irish Republic has been a fertile breeding ground for proliferation of pirate radio. Initially these were small low budget 1 kW AM stations, like ARD257, Radio Dublin and of course the famous Big D Radio. The massive public support enjoyed by these stations spawned a pop service for RTE, which has still to make a wide success of itself in the Dublin area. More importantly, they created an atmosphere for high power, processed FM stations and the general move to FM as the format of the future. This was initiated by the hugely successful Radio Nova, now a legitimate satellite station based in England. At the moment, Dublin enjoys a vast range of AM/FM stations, ranging from Sunshine Radio, Q102, RTE's licensed Millennium Radio, CLASS, an easy listening station, TTTR (a country station, Liberties 104 FM, HOPE FM, Capital (an album station) and at least a dozen more. Each station survives by targeting its own demographic base effectively.

Basically the system evolved naturally, and on similar lines to those elsewhere in Europe, only of course here was no governing body to issue licences. The consensus is that the stations exist by popular demand. They employ a lot of people, provide a reasonable public service and some even pay their taxes and with PRS negotiating deals with an increasing number of stations, there is no harm being done. This factor, combined with the enormous public support the stations enjoyed for 12 years, continued to place the legislation on a back burner. The government was informed many years ago that it would be illegal to take stations off the air, unless they were replaced by a legal framework.

Yet only 70 to 80 miles north of Dublin, in Northern Ireland, there was only Radio 1 on AM., and a very watery, conservative ILR station, being all things to all people. In an effort to change this situation, a small group from Ulster stimulated local interest, generated and focused a series of border stations, from Newry to Co. Donegal, to beam into Ulster. The next step was to get these small stations onto FM, and beam into Belfast. By directly getting Ulster money behind some of the stations, greater impetus allowed larger stations, like ZEE 103, (using a 3kW Italian transmitter, running an ERP of 60 kW) to effectively target the large populated basin of the Lagan Valley. (But still they did not reach Belfast effectively.)

It was necessary to take a quantum leap in technology and resources; and put something on that would blow the living daylights out of Belfast, Scotland and anywhere as far away as Tokyo. So in April 87, I took the necessary moves and KISS FM 103.7, a 500kW FM giant was born. Backing was achieved in August, and the plans beaten out over the next six weeks. The first transmitters were bought in October, and we knew then that we were in business. The long term aim of the station was also to fulfil the regional status outlined in the Minister's bill, which was planned to be law by Christmas 87, and also prove both the need and viability of additional large scale services in Northern Ireland. The station itself was simply an extension of an intriguing experiment active for well over ten years. This has been completely successful in all its objectives. . . so far! Applications have been made to both the newly formed Commission in Dublin, and for the IBA's incremental licences in the UK. 1989 will prove whether this success is to continue.

The facility concerned was to compliment some of the 20 border stations. It was to remain viable in the face of the severe competition from one of ILR's most successful stations, Downtown Radio, now with FM services broadcasting well into Eire, and the now well established and highly successful RTE2, now emphasising its FM service, as well as the AM BBC Radio 1 (FM for 65% of the British Isles was achieved in late 1988).

Due to the extremely low population density outside the main Irish cities, the first requirement was to effectively deliver the station's FM signal to those most likely to hear it. This meant an easterly, narrow beam. This would enable us to cover areas of greatest population density, and do so using a relatively simple stack of yagis, and also take full advantage of the sidelobes that they also provide. The local rural areas populated by and large by AM listeners, were easily served with a simple AM 5kW service originally on 1008kHz. The budget of £300,000 would therefore have to be thinly spread on studio gear for the short term, with greater emphasis on transmitter site acquisition and Signal viability. Thanks to great co-operation from suppliers and manufacturers from Dallas to London, we were on air with tests in less than four and a half months, although there were lots of loose ends to tidy up afterwards.

The VHF transmitters were a 5kW Elcom Bauer, from Dallas, and a 1.8kW from Cyberscan in London, later extensively rebuilt in the station's workshops. Exciters and links (STLs) were from Sound Broadcast Services and a mid 70’s RCA. We had planned to upgrade with Moseley or Marti links, and Varian TVT exciters. However, we were so impressed by the exciters and links in the new range of SBS gear, that we have gone for their equipment almost entirely. We used a synthesised VHF 350Watt variable power rig, for some of our OBs, and we plan to acquire their first rate UHF synthesised links for direct STLs later. The additional advantage of them being located in London, and their willingness to help out with any slight problems, to the extent of flying over in less than two hours with a vital replacement part, made them a very attractive source for broadcast equipment. A 1kW Marconi transmitter was refurbished for use as a transponder for the North West.

The medium wave transmitters were a 5kW CCA model from New York, and another Bauer, a 1000J 1kW, via BESCO from Los Angeles. The Bauer required a new oil filled modulation transformer, as the 125% l2kHz mod from the Optimod, dispatched its original one, after four months! Despite this the AM standby 1kW is practically an unused item from 1960! It still has mercury arc rectifiers, a real masterpiece! With most of the high power transmitters being used, market upgrade models from the US, it was of course necessary to go for well established manufacturers, so that vital and difficult to obtain spare parts were easily at hand. The decision to upgrade to Marconi or Pye 10kW FMs was subject to actual date of closure, and the licensed powers in the future. Plans to bring over a fully built and tested containerised RCA 50kW/25kW AM transmitter were put on hold.

Shively Bell Labs provided an immediate service, and due to the urgency of our situation we got priority over much larger orders to get the 12.5 kW rated harness to us in superquick time. This was a 12 way item, in four sections. The first took the 1½" to four ½" n-type splitters fed the twelve 400 Watt rated six element yagiis. The tower was a 24" span 165' item suitable for the 72 six element yagiis supplied by TCL in Dublin. An unforeseen opportunity in August allowed an upgrade of the system to 24 yagiis, with a slight extra sidelobe, to push our signal well into Co. Antrim, as far as Ballymoney. Running the transmitter at full capacity, I finally managed a 1.2 MegaWatt ERP, with the 23d8 gain system. With the site altitude at only 800', it was felt unnecessary to go for heated elements. The antennae were vertically polarised, since the main station market uses portable radios and car radios. The transmitters and links were housed quite simply in a 20 foot container requiring a minimum of installation, as all basic commissioning work was carried out in the plant downtown, and then it was shipped up to the mountain site, for final 'plugging in'.

The AM site comprised a Prendergast 200' tower. Initially we had planned for a two tower active, directional system, allowing around 3-6d8 gain. However, land use being what it is, a second tower was later ruled out. Despite this, partial directivity was achieved, putting the AM signal into the rural areas. Matching components from Kintronics, an abundance of co-operation from South Midland and specialist aid from one of Dublin's large stations, allowed our AM to get on air in double quick time. Despite the windiest and wettest winters in years, the high power FM followed tour weeks later. We had been site testing since November using just 150Watts, then 1kW into the yagiis.

The AM signal on 1008kHz, with 5kHz audio, proved very popular with the myriad of DXers in northern Europe, even as far as the Eastern Bloc! However, despite over six months of clean broadcasting on this channel, it proved too popular for some rather stale franchised listeners in Newtownards. A word from the Department of Communications in Dublin meant that we had to vacate the channel. 1170kHz was chosen temporarily, as a dedicated listener just dropped by 12 hours later with a set of 1170kHz crystals. We then set about planning for a diplex on 1413kHz, and 1170, or 927kHz. So we finally set up with l2kHz audio and 5kW on 1413kHz, and 1170kHz, with our 1kW. Both sites were independently linked on UHF, using cheap but effective SBS links. Originally, to enable monitoring of the transmitters and provide immediate status indication and security, we planned to upgrade these links for proper digital two-way communication between all three sites. Time was not permitting, however.

For the AM, processing was Orban's OPTIMOD 9100B, with its l2kHz audio bandwidth. This really does give the FM on AM sound that they claim; if only the radio manufacturers would let the public have the synchronous radios to take advantage of the fact. Maybe with the RTE/Luxembourg Tara/Radio Five project on long wave, this may actually make someone in the UK make a good, selective and cheap AM radio that does this vintage broadcast medium some justice.

FM is an Inovonics, with their superb FM-X stereo coder, from Broadcast Software. We are very satisfied with this little beast, and it has proved ideal for the aggressive, fast sound that the station has. It certainly has lit up a few radios, where the signal would otherwise have been missed, as in areas of low signal strength. Once again, the public is waiting for FMx stereo radios to take further advantage of the improved stereo performance in weaker areas. Given a licence, we also have plans to experiment, and sell as a facility the various new uses of SCA, such as RDS. That however may require an increase in transmitter power, and the use of circular polarised antennae. Initial project viability has been discussed with Shively using custom made three element yagiis. (SCA was used briefly by one of Dublin's big stations, Q702. They used the Optimod along with multiband Texar processors, and a CRL SCA generator.)

At the studio end of the things, a studio AM optout facility was built in from the word go. The present on air studio was not a million miles away from the IBA community studio used at the 1997 Radio Academy Festival. We chose LAD turntables from Canford Audio, as for most of the bits and bobs. A Soundtech 72 line desk, with PPMs, two mic channels, and an OB/telephone interface became the heart of the studio. Broadcast Electronic triple stacks and Technics CD machines provided the non-vinyl software. We avoided going cart CD. The Denon cart CD machines were not that reliable at the time of construction. Experience from both DTR and Sunshine showed the wisdom of this choice. However, judging by recent reports on later batches, we will consider this very seriously in the future. The CD software imported as play list material and library backup did not suffer from the poor quality of manufacture that some of the Dublin stations have experienced. Maybe Century 21 felt a better quality customer required a better quality product! We are looking for the user friendly, reliable, cart CD player before putting our full play list on the CD format, without going for the programmable automatic machines available, as apparently used at Nova and Shetland. However, the actual software available on CD in the first place will have to dramatically improve before this happens entirely.

We were the first Irish station to go for CD programming, taking the Century 21 library, rather than getting our main back catalogue on vinyl. We do however still keep most play list and chart material on cart. Specialist shows such as blues, reggae and album rock are sometimes compiled in our production studio, depending on operator experience. Certainly the AM optout programming was all edited and produced in the production studio, or the Belfast studio.

The production studio was a compact eight track one. We used two PR99s, an AHB System 8 desk, and a ½" Otari eight track. A BE record cart, and various digital effects units, like the Yamaha SPX-90, completed this set up. A TEAC six head quarter track machine provided useful long play tape programmes, for those occasional moments and emergencies. I decided to go for one main rack in this studio to provide access to all of the station outputs. There was provision of tie lines and DAs to connect the newsroom, production booth/news booth together. This versatility proved useful for talkback systems, and even for the occasional band that laid down one or two demos. One of these was Too Much For The White Man, an up and coming rock band only too happy to avail themselves of our facilities. Of course a lot more space, and a 16 or 32-track studio would make life a lot easier!

The commercial sales team was based in offices in the University area of Belfast, although the entire area from Cavan, Strabane and Belfast was covered. Communication between production and this office proved laborious, if not downright hazardous! But the use of two well oiled fax machines and three telephone lines at Belfast and Monaghan helped this process no end. The main beef about being nonlicenced, even with paying the music copyright, taxes and where appropriate using full union staff, is the news service. This is essential for any Ulster targeted facility. Radio Nova, Magic & Energy, (all owned by Chris Cary) in Dublin were the only stations to get a PA wire. With an unlicensed situation, it makes it impossible to invest the large sums necessary for a decent independent news service. Certainly to get the 20% news and speech content, as required by the proposed bill, will require the station to enter every market its signals see in order to pay for this. A major regional three or four county service is our aim.

Programming was in the hands of Chiltern Radio and Nova veteran Tom Hardy. The station was to appeal to the older 18-45 bracket, avoiding the teen sound of Radio 1, and yet still appealing to the young, money spending population groupings. Before the station went on air, the 'others' section in local surveys was around 6-7% (including RTE, pirates and Luxy). After only two months of being on air, this figure rose to 26%.

The station sound is a solid 24 hours of hot hits and album music, breaking at the weekend or briefly at night with easy listening during Good Night KISSSSSS and including Scott Shannon's US Top 30, The Gary Owens Music Weekend, later replaced with Bill Neal.

It is early days yet for what amounts to being the biggest VHF station on air in the British Isles. During the summer we had the PD of Radio Clyde complain that he could hear Scott Shannon in perfect stereo in Edinburgh on KISS FM several hours before he aired it in Glasgow!! The move to bigger premises and installation of a proper news studio, along with the main FM studio, and a full set of production and editing studios, will all make life at this regional station very interesting."